Sakthivel writes :

Occultation of Uranus

I was fortunate to observe the occultation of Uranus by the moon

yesterday(November 28). I first thought I can observe this using the

10x50 binoculars. But I could not see Uranus through the binoculars.

The sky had hazy clouds. I set up my c11 and I could see Uranus only

as a dot(70x). As I was watching Uranus suddenly disappeared. I

thought it could be because of clouds. Suddenly I realised that it

was 9:23pm(Indian Standard Time) the time of beginning of occultation.

I could not observe the reappearance of Uranus from the lit side of

the moon at around 10:25pm as it became cloudy.

Sakthivel writes :

Planets and days of the week ........

The sky is our natural calendar. The year is based on Sun(365 days to come
round the zodiac) and the month is based on the moon(30days , full moon to full
moon). I do not know the need for the week and how it is originated.

But the naming is based on the naked eye objects seen in the sky other than the
stars. They are the Sun , Moon and all the five naked eye planets namely
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupitor and Saturn. The names of these naked eye objects
(called grahas)are chosen for the days of the week. All these seven naked eye
objects and two other points in space (Rahu and Kethu, which are intersecting
points of the moon's path and the sun's path in the sky) form the nine grahas
known in indian culture.

Uranus and Neptune were not known to civilisation before the invention of
the telescope.

Uranus can be seen with difficulty by naked eye( Bothe the sky and the eye
should be good) as its brightness is in the limit of visibility(magnitude 6)
for many of us.But it is an easy object through the binoculars.

The only other planet Neptune(magnitude 8) can be seen only using a telescope /
binoculars.

Well, It's been continuously raining. Most of the nights during this year happen to be cloudy nights here in Coimbatore. I am not complaining, but wondering about the change in sky watching conditions in Coimbatore. I am yet to complete my sun filter. Hoping to finish it in a week or two and use at the daytime to observe the Sun using my scope if the clouds are kind enough to give way. I have a mylar filter which is very comfortable to use with my binoculars to observe Sun spots everyday.